Logic lost

When did the social safety net set up during and after the great depression suddenly become government handouts to moochers?
Back in the 1930s, our nation as a whole decided that we, as a whole, have a social responsibility to those among us who are poorest and weakest. This social responsibility translates to what we now call "entitlements" including Social Security and Medicare, but also encompassing food stamps and "welfare."
The reason some seem to be okay with Social Security and Medicare but not any other assistance to any other person, is (aside from our being inherently selfish) due to the fact that we are taxed separately for these two items. Because certain taxes are earmarked, some have the mistaken impression that they deserve these two entitlements because they've already paid for them in FICA taxes over the years.
In some cases, the amount of money a retiree receives from Social Security and Medicare is less than or equal to what they paid in. Usually if that retiree dies suddenly, with no previous illness, within eight-to-ten years of retirement. So with Uncle Stu, who retired at 65, wasn't sick a day in his life and drops dead of a massive heart attack at age 75, the government broke even.
But most of us aren't like Stu. And if the government stopped payment on SSI checks as soon as what you had paid in was used up, the nation's senior citizens would descend on Washington with pitchforks and shotguns. Somehow, paying to support senior citizens is acceptable, but paying to support a mother and her two young children whose only income is a part-time job at a 7-11, is communism.